Meet the Faculty at Texas Executive Education

Sharon Dunn

Ph.D., MIS, University of Texas, Austin
M.B.A., Finance, University of Texas, Austin
B.ED., University of Texas, Austin

Dr. Dunn has had a varied career in entrepreneurial ventures and academia. In the early 80s, armed with a fresh MBA, she and her partners entered the alternative financial services industry by starting a check-cashing company, The Money Box. The company grew to 70 locations throughout Texas, offering low-cost check cashing, money orders, wire-transfer services and pre-paid debit cards to customers. The company focused on outstanding customer service and strategic use of information systems. Earlier this year, the company was sold to a nationwide competitor.

Dr. Dunn has been part of the faculty of the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas since the late 1990s. She's taught a wide-range of MIS classes, from the required introductory MIS course, to data-communications and networks and service-oriented architecture (SOA). Most recently, she has team taught the experiential-learning based, MIS capstone class in project management. In the six years of teaching this class, she has overseen the implementation of dozens of IT projects benefiting the Austin community.

Dr. Dunn’s research interests are driven by behavioral decision-making. The impact of heuristics and biases undermine strict economic modeling of consumer behavior, especially in an IT-driven marketplace. Using auctions and other market manipulations, her research has supported a move away from pure economics for understanding the results of business decisions.

With two daughters in college, Dr. Dunn, a lifelong Austinite, is active in the Austin community. She enjoys cooking, gardening and spending time with her husband.